As children grow, they develop more interests and skills while increasing their capabilities to accomplish new activities. If you have a nine-year-old boy, you need to find toys that keep him active and thinking so that he can positively progress towards adulthood. Not only is he becoming stronger physically, but he is also trying to master the skills of almost everything that he encounters. When considering the best toys and gifts for 9 year old boys, think of model kits, construction sets, and science projects that are more complicated than what he did the year before.
Boys this age are sponges that soak up everything that they can learn, so it is important to give them toys that are not only thought-provoking but will also keep their bodies and brains active.
Best Toys And Gifts For 9 Year Old Boys – Reviews
Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad
Portable and easy to use, the Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad lets kids of all ages trace and draw pictures. With pre-printed picture pages, the board is lit up allowing kids to explore their creativity with either tracing paper or blank sheets. And, when their tracing paper runs out, you can use normal copy paper too.
Included colored pencils and a graphic pencil allow kids to easily use this lightweight illuminating board, plus the locking frame will hold the paper in place. The Crayola Light-Up Tracing Pad uses AA batteries, and it includes 35 different items for your child to use. Plus, you can even download extra images to create an endless amount of drawing activities for your 9-year-old to enjoy.
Gravity Maze
For the perfect combination of a marble run and 3-D puzzle, the Gravity Maze is a great choice for a nine-year-old boy. It has a simple objective to solve a puzzle on a challenge card by assembling color-coded towers on a 4 x 4 game board. By dropping a marble on the tower, your child can see it reach its target by running through the maze in the shortest amount of time.
This is a great game to improve sequential reasoning, thinking ahead, and paying attention to detail. Plus, it helps to improve planning and problem-solving skills as well as spatial intelligence, and critical thinking skills. Gravity Maze can be played with other or independently and the challenges are ranked according to level of difficulty.
Disgusting Science Kit
Little boys love anything that is disgusting. Since the grosser it is, the better, the Disgusting Science Kit has plenty of activities to entertain your 9-year-old boy. With easy to follow instructions, this disgusting science kit provides fun facts about their body parts and how they work.
The Disgusting Science Kit also examines what the human body produces what grows inside with activities that include making bacteria and mold in Petri dishes. Other activities include making fake blood and slimy snot which may grow you out, but your child will love. This is a very educational and fun too that will help to improve visual motor and psychomotor development as well as enhance critical thinking.
Build & Paint Your Own Wooden Cars
Young boys love to create things, especially out of wood. With these wood race cars, your 9-year-old has the ideal outlet for his creativity and the confidence builder of making something on his own. With all the parts ready and easy to assemble, the sanded and precut pieces allow your son to build the car and decorate it how he wants with paint and stickers.
A great activity for rainy weather or even a group activity at parties, the Build & Paint Your Own Wooden Cars are a fun and creative activity for lots of occasions. Not only will your son improve his fine motor skills and dexterity, he will be able to take pride in designing and building his very own toy. This set is also a great way to introduce your child to woodworking, plus it includes everything you need to build as well as child-friendly instructions.
N-Strike Elite Strongarm Blaster
If you are looking for a toy for a child with an active imagination, the N-Strike Elite Strongarm Blaster is a great shooting game that allows 9-year-olds to practice long-distance shooting. Patterned after a larger revolver, the N-Strike packs a strong punch that can rapidly shoot six soft-tip darts successively. The barrel is also easy to flip for easy reloading.
With an ergonomic and accurate grip, the N-Strike is a great toy for role-playing games. Providing a great tool for imaginative play, the N-Strike can help improve emotional, social, and cognitive skills with a safe and easy to use toy.
Tonka Classic Steel Mighty Dump Truck
Boys of all ages love trucks! Tonka is a well-known name in the world of toy trucks using long-lasting steel for toys that can take on years of play. The Classic Dump Truck by Tonka is perfect for hauling rocks and sticks, cruising over sand dunes, or plowing through dirt piles for hours of fun and creative play.
Easy to clean with just light scrubbing or a quick rinse off, the Tonka Dump Truck has a durable paint job and is easy to maintain. Perfect for boys that already have a fascination with trucks, the steel bed on the truck moves creating realistic play. With a lifetime guarantee, the Tonka Dump Truck is a great gift for your 9-year-old.
Ivan’s Hinge
If you are looking for a puzzle type toy that has more than one way to solve it, Ivan’s Hinge will keep your 9-year-old entertained for hours. Featuring stimulating colors, the hinges on this puzzle toy work with the included 56 challenge cards. Your child will spend hours trying to align the hinges to the puzzle in an effort to solve it.
This is an addictive game that is perfect for long road trips or even for timed challenges with friends. With the ability to trigger the creative juices in any child, your 9-year-old will increase his confidence and sharpen his brain as he solves problem after problem. This is also a great toy for kids that fidget that help them expend all that energy while having fun and learning at the same time.
Ozobot 2.0 Bit
One of the littlest programmable robots ever created, the Ozobot 2.0 Bit may not impress your child at first glance, but he will be thrilled after he discovers everything that Ozobot can do. Controlled with lines and color codes drawn by markers, this little robot can dance and race however your child chooses. Only one inch tall, Ozobot features activities and games that are downloadable so your child can create new challenges for Ozobot once he understands how it works.
Complete with Ozocards, charging cable, and a carrying pod, Ozobot is used in over 2,000 school STEM programs across the country. This is a fun and easy way to teach your child about programming robots that will also help to enhance your 9-year-olds critical thinking skills while improving concentration and focus. Plus, Ozobot is compatible with Android, iOS, and the Web.
E100 Electric Scooter
For the active 9-year-old boy in your life, the E100 Electric Scooter will have him cruising through the streets in style. Equipped with a fully rechargeable 24-volt battery, this ride on scooter has an ultra-quiet motor that is chain-driven. It also features a larger 8-inch pneumatic tire in the front with a smaller back tire for optimal stability when he is cruising at 10 mph.
The E100 has a sturdy frame and is the perfect size for a 9-year-old. This is a UL-certified scooter that is a great toy for improving proprioceptive sense and increasing your child’s sense of balance. It also features a retractable kickstand, is available in six colors, and can support up to 120 pounds.
Colorful Scented Markers
Featuring vibrant and bold colors, the Colorful Scented Markers features a different smell for each of the markers. With twelve greats scents like banana split and mango, these markers are AP non-toxic certified and contain double the amount of ink as regular markers that are the same size. The tips of these markers will not bleed and are chiseled into three different widths to provide variety in a line shape.
Easy to grip, these markers have thick barrels that are great for smaller hands, plus they are sturdy and strong with tips that keep their shape for long periods of use. The Colorful Scented Markers are great for little budding artists with the added fun of smells like grape, bubble gum, and blueberry. These are water-based ink markers that are also a wonderful sensory stimulus for your young artist.
Choosing the Best Toys And Gifts For 9 Year Old Boys
Finding good toys for your 9-year-old son can sometimes be a challenge. You want something they will think is fun but that will also a toy that will benefit his development.
Behavior Problems
It’s not uncommon for a 9-year-old boy to engage in some behavioral issues including potty talk, yelling, and back-talking. With the help of a few educational toys, you can help to stop the inappropriate behavior by redirecting them. It can be helpful to diffuse heated situations by staying cool and suggesting doing an activity together that will pull him in or trick him out of his potty mouth phase by suggesting he examine his boogers under a microscope. It is always important to consider toys that can create a more positive home environment and take into consideration normal parent-child struggles.
Development
Puberty can start to show signs around 9 years old which can include muscle development and voice changes. Boys can also develop a large amount of energy from this abrupt surge of hormones so it’s important to give them toys that help to enhance the physical development they are undergoing.
Attention Span
Attention spans have become more advanced by the time a boy is 9 years old. He should be able to concentrate and focus for a much longer time period without becoming frustrated or bored, so he should be able to closely examine different parts of an activity. The ability to focus helps to increase divergent problem solving and counterfactual reasoning skills.
By integrating a wide range of experiential and sensory information, he will be able to develop several solutions to just one problem. Construction and building toys, as well as crafts, are great toys and gifts for helping 9-year-old boys to increase their attention span and learn how to concentrate and focus on the project they have in front of them.
Creativity
Besides an increase in concentration and attention span, 9-year-old boys will also see an increase in their artistic abilities, especially as it relates to real-life objects. At this age, they will have a better ability to depict body parts realistically and an increase in the mastery of fine motor skills, spatial intelligence, and visual-motor coordination. Providing them with toys that are as real as possible help them to continue to use their imagination in role-playing and pretend play activities.
Language skills are also developing as many 9-year-old boys can communicate thoughts very well. This can help to enhance social interaction and improve their reading skills. Toys that help to increase their vocabulary as well as encourage dramatic or cooperative play will help to improve his social skills.
Spatial Abilities
While 9-year-old girls often have a better command of language and words, boys often excel in spatial abilities since boys tend to go through growth spurts later in life. Searching for toys that help to improve the spatial abilities can help them expand this tendency to be able to remember the spatial relations among objects.
While there are tons of toys that can help your nine-year-old son have fun while also learning, it can be hard to know which ones will make the perfect gift. As long as you know where their interests lie, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding a gift that your child will get the most out of but also enjoy.
